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This book is a republication of the original work which was published in 1991. It presents the author's pioneering work in establishing new theoretical ground for the art therapy profession. Schaverien painstakingly describes and defines ‘processes which have so far only been intuitively known to art therapists’ (p. 6) by introducing and elaborating the psychoanalytic concepts of transference and countertransference in relation to the use of visual art objects. The subject of investigation is her work with patients in a particular form of art therapy, which she defined for the first time as ‘analytical art psychotherapy’. In the years since its original publication, this book has been a seminal text for art therapists.
The author's stated intention in this book is ‘to attempt to bridge the perceived gap between the practice of art therapy and analytic forms of psychotherapy …’ (p. 229). The epistemological base of this venture includes the fields of philosophy, anthropology, and aesthetics, as well as psychoanalysis. She proceeds by investigating the complex nature of the transferences which occur within the art therapy setting, proposing that a distinct, ‘aesthetic’ form of transference comes into play in relation to the art, which she distinguishes from the transference to the person of the therapist. This lends itself to ‘… a highly charged triangular encounter’ (p. 119). The book analyses the complexity of this force field, and presents the author's clinical approach to the processes described at the time when the book was written.
A particular role is proposed for the making and use of visual art within the boundaries of the clinical setting, described as the ‘mediation’ of unconscious material. Using the ideas of Cassirer, a philosopher, Schaverien suggests that the making of art is ‘formative’ in itself, a way in which the ‘I’ comes to grips with the world through ‘true action’ (Cassirer 1955). Making art in the clinical setting ‘bares the phenomenon’(p. 107) a